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Into the firing line: civilian ingress during the 2013 “Red October” bushfires, Australia

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Abstract

A major issue for bushfire management arises when residents decide to leave a safe area and enter the fire zone to rescue or defend their property, pets, loved ones or other assets. Here, we use statistical and narrative analyses of data from an online survey and semi-structured interviews with residents affected by the 2013 “Red October” bushfires in New South Wales, Australia. The survey results revealed that of the 58 % of respondents who were not at home at the time the threat became apparent, 65 % indicated that they attempted to get home prior to the arrival of the fire front. In doing so, many endangered themselves, their family, friends and emergency services personnel. This paper discusses the shortcomings of bushfire survival plans and official risk communication, which do not cater well for household units that are divided or unattended when a bushfire starts. Findings suggest that to enhance bushfire safety and preparedness, emergency managers should acknowledge and speak more directly to the specific constraints to action for particular social groups at the wildland–urban interface, including families with school-age children, commuters and absentee landholders.

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Notes

  1. In public policy terms, a “wicked problem” is a problem that cannot clearly be defined or solved (APPC 2007). Trying to manage this problem may inadvertently create other problems.

  2. An ‘agistor’ is a person who pays to keep their horse on someone else’s land (Main 2010, p. 2).

  3. χ-squared = 5.5359, df = 1, p value = 0.01863.

  4. The discrepancy between reported n values in the text versus Table 2 is due to some respondents not answering all survey questions.

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Acknowledgments

The Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires (CERMB) at the University of Wollongong (UOW) was commissioned and funded by the NSW Rural Fire Service to conduct the online survey under the management of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre. Ethics approval was obtained from the UOW Human Research Ethics Committee and the La Trobe University Human Research Ethics Committee. Thank you is due to Prof Jim McLennan, La Trobe University, the chief investigator for the online survey and Southern Highlands interviews. Thank you also to CERMB, AUSCCER, and NSW RFS colleagues who formed a part of the interview teams. We are grateful to the research participants for sharing their time and invaluable insights. Thank you also to the anonymous peer reviewers for constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Carrie Wilkinson, Christine Eriksen & Trent Penman

  2. Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Carrie Wilkinson & Christine Eriksen

  3. Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, University of Melbourne, Creswick, VIC, 3364, Australia

    Trent Penman

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  1. Carrie Wilkinson
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  2. Christine Eriksen
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Correspondence to Christine Eriksen.

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Wilkinson, C., Eriksen, C. & Penman, T. Into the firing line: civilian ingress during the 2013 “Red October” bushfires, Australia. Nat Hazards 80, 521–538 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-1982-5

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